Thursday 6th December 2007 was an extremely windy night come ride time at 7.00pm. Craig arrived first at Gollum's Cave followed by Terry H, and for once Golly was actually ready to go, so we wasted no time and set off along the Great Lime Road just a few minutes later to see who would be man enough to turn out.

The men were the Speedian and Keith. We would have enjoyed Brian F's company aswell but his new Specialized Epic had only just arrived at a certain bike shop in South Gosforth so it wasn't available for him to ride. With luck we'll see the beast on Sunday, should be good.

Gollum led up the nearest "right of way" adjacent to a church, and decided there may be a new stretch available through the trees. The rest followed, but it was a short adventure leading to us all being trapped in a sea of bramble and vines, so we got back onto the main drag again. A few minutes later we emerged in Old Killingworth Village, lights blazing. We turned our usual corner and got onto the Waggonway at the top of Holystone Farm, luckily pretty much sheltered from the strong wind. Tonight's first twist was to keep going down to Burradon, then onto the bridleway through to the A189 just north of Sandy Lane. No option but to run back down to the roundabout on tarmac, then we took the B road (actually still the old Great Lime Road) towards Dudley before turning west into Weetslade.

Some joker suggested we ignore the wind and ride up to the exposed peak, so we followed up there like sheep, but slower. Except for Terry H and Craig in particular who turned it into an Olympic event and got the gold. Ian and Golly got up there less than an hour later, no sweat. Then it was Speedy's turn to dictate the course and he had us plummeting blindly off the top seeking a different way down to the waggonway. He found it, and it was a lovely little stretch of twisting singletrack, just a shame it only lasted a minute or two.

We scuttled through to Wideopen where once again Ian directed the play, into another of his wasps nests with trees inches apart. Just wish I could have grabbed some video in here, it looked great in the bike lights from the back as we swerved through a long archway of low trees in otherwise total blackout. We crossed the A1 just below Seaton Burn and Ian continued his theme for the night as we zigzagged around the field boundaries towards Brunton, eventually being deposited at Brunswick Industrial Estate before escaping across to the edge of Hazlerigg and the Nature Reserve at Brunton.

Time for a food halt as there were a couple of heavy legs and empty bellies to fettle. Then it was madness loosed again behind Ian through Stump City to the Big Waters. We covered quite a bit of extra ground here, taking in some dodgy looking wooden steps onto a bridge and surviving, led through the next parts by Terry H on the trusty Cannondale across the timber boards that cover the bogs which are all over the place. Luckily they themselves are also covered, with chicken wire to give tyres half a chance to grip. Crazily, in some areas of the country the Forestry Commission has told the manmade trail builders to remove the chicken wire because it scratches human skin more than bare timber. How daft can you get? I know what I'd rather have, especially in the wet.

Eventually Ian got us down the opposite side of the A1 and we ducked under it at a sewer crossing to hit the fields around the new East Brunton estates. That seemed to take a while, probably because the Gollum was leading, although it was suggested he'd been pushing quite hard. Don't know how - must be the porridge kicking in. We toured up through the new houses where the conversation turned to "buy-to-sell" and the crazy price of housing here because of it. It had been e pretty exhilarating ride up to now thanks to the dark and a few new twists and turns, but we hadn't got to the pay-off yet. That came after swooping down to the Great North Road and heading up to Gosforth Park where we had another short rest in the Hotel grounds to get set for the Finale.

That meant placing our trust in Ian once more and he didn't disappoint - does he ever? We spent the next half hour or so bombing around in the trees as he led with his machete out, carving even more new trails to get us tangled in. You may well recall, Dear Reader, that poor Craig has been a little in the thick of things lately as far as being rubber-side up goes. He's barely recovered from the last four or five crash dives but here he was again, going for broke with his newly acquired air forks on the Stumpy but managing to come a purler yet again as he found something very sharp to land on. Gathering out on Sandy Lane to wait for him, we just new it would be him and not Keith, sitting directly behind Craig, who'd grabbed a gobful of Mother Earth. They say it comes in threes. Well, that's two threes in the last few rides!

Terry was ready to leave us here and cut across the top of Killingworth back to the coast, but we persuaded him to join us for the final fling across the top of the golf course. So in we all dived for probably the fastest run of the night, until you bang into the first tight right hander, that is. That's where Ian, Terry and Golly got really bunched up and turned it into a race under the trees. Fantastic ground for this with plenty of space to manoeuvre and dodge from side to side as you try to find a way past. We swapped the lead several times, and then hit the only tight left hander. Unfortunately there's a hefty chunk of log lying here right on the crown of the turn, and Terry hit it, coming down with Golly running into his back wheel. As they both came to a sudden halt, Terry looked up and shouted "yes, I'm OK but for one small thing!". That small thing turned out to be his hand, which was being firmly stood on by a Gollum's foot. Ooops! Minutes later he moved and Terry was able to get up and remount. By then, the chortling pair of Keith and Craig had caught them and were more than happy to extract some Michael from the crashers - "take care in the dark, sonny", "that's what you get for hurrying, sonny" etc, etc.

Only a short straight run left now to the road through the park, where we turned down towards Findus, cutting through to West Moor. That's where Terry left us on Station Road to head for home, while we went back along the Great Lime Road, Craig and Gollum getting back to the cave at 10.15pm  with about 24 miles on the clock. To be verified.

Another excellent, enjoyable ride with the weather turning out to be perfect as the vile wind just vanished from Brunton onwards!

couple of pictures will follow Friday or Saturday.

Keep watching and if you fancy a ride out with us, drop us a line here: bailout@midaircrisis.org.uk